The present invention concerns a method and a device for cleaning exhaust air from kitchen equipment, such as steamers, grilling equipment, baking ovens and the like. The term "cleaning" is also understood to refer to removing vapor from the exhaust air.
In operation of kitchen equipment, in particular steamers, hot air equipment, grilling equipment and baking ovens, exhaust air is generated, which can be a great burden on the ambient room air. The exhaust air contains hot water steam, smoke, fats, oils, noxious odors and other chemicals and compounds formed in burning fat.
To remove the exhaust air, for example by venting it to the outside, extremely expensive exhaust air installations and shafts are necessary and are also required by law, depending on the intended application of the kitchen equipment, which causes considerable extra costs for such kitchen equipment. In addition, it is known that removing the exhaust air to the outside causes a considerable odor burden in the immediate vicinity, which is why the use of such kitchen equipment is limited.
If no exhaust air system is provided, the room air may be greatly impaired by the exhaust air, so that certain cooking processes, such as smoking chickens in a hot air smoker, cannot be carried out reasonably at all.
Measures have already been proposed, but they have proven to be inadequate or uneconomical. For example, in one known method, the exhaust air is passed through a water mist. One disadvantage of this is the extremely high water consumption combined with the additional disadvantage that odors and smoke cannot be captured adequately. To improve this, activated carbon filters are also used, but they are very expensive and must be disposed of regularly as special waste.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to create a method and a device for cleaning the exhaust air from kitchen equipment such as steamers, grilling equipment, baking ovens and the like, so that the exhaust air can be cleaned easily, effectively and inexpensively.